With the increase in development of offshore petroleum operations, renewed interest has been exhibited in construction of structures having a high strenghth-to-weight ratio. It has long been known in the art that tubular truss works are one type of structure well suited for such applications. However, one problem with tubular structures has been that of providing a reliable and efficient method of interconnecting the various brace members of a truss in a manner to present a structure having desired strength while exhibiting satisfactory fatigue life. Welding and other conventional joint fabrication techniques have proved to be slow and cumbersome, particularly when constructing a drilling platform in rough seas for example.
One approach to solving the problem alluded to above, is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,126, issued to H. H. George on Jan. 24, 1978. This patent discloses a number of pre-fabricated connectors used in the construction of tubular trusses. Other connectors of this variety are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,050,829 and 4,092,077. Though these connectors represent an advancement over the prior art, they nevertheless all have a common drawback in that they are relatively expensive to fabricate in comparison with conventional joint fabrication.